Kathmandu, July 24

In the process of expediting the Kathmandu-Birgunj Electric Railway Project, the Department of Railways (DoR) has called six international bidders for final competition to prepare the feasibility study report of the mega project.

The DoR has sent letters to all the short-listed competitors last week calling for their expression of interest (EoI) to carry out the feasibility report.

While the DoR officials refused to divulge the information of the total number of bidders, they revealed that three Chinese and three South Korean bidders had been short-listed for the final competition.

The short-listed bidders include Cheil Engineering Korea, China Railway First Survey and Design Institute, Soosung Engineering Korea, consortium of Yooshin Engineering Korea, Third Railway Survey and Design Institute Group and Tractebel Engineering, and China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group.

“DoR has called all the six short-listed bidders to submit EoI and one party would be selected based on their response,” said Prakash Upadhyaya, spokesperson for DoR. According to Upadhyaya, the department is aiming to finalise the selection process as soon as possible so that the study can be initiated within this fiscal year.

According to Upadhyaya, the consultant will get six months to conduct the feasibility study. The consultant would also have to suggest the best technical and financial options for the project along with the preliminary cost estimate.

The government had planned to finalise the feasibility study of this project in the last fiscal year, 2016-17. However, the delay in consultant selection process has affected the progress. “Feasibility study of Kathmandu-Birgunj railway will be conducted in current fiscal year,” according to budget of last fiscal year.

The railway would directly link the Capital with the major trading destination of the country. Likewise, it would boost the connectivity between Kathmandu and Tarai.